Three Broomsticks - August 9th (Later Evening)

[booky_knowitall]

Hermione walked into the Three Broomsticks, Ron right behind her. She looked around until she saw a table to suit them-one towards the center of the room-and walked over to take a seat. She thought briefly about waiting to sit and see if Ron would pull her chair out...he hadn't really gotten himself in trouble lately, so that seemed nearly

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[naught_common]

He could have stopped her. He chose not to try. When she was finished he reached for the startched linen handkerchief in his pocket and used it to sop up the blood flowing from his nose. She'd burst at least one vessel and he was fairly certain he'd not be able to stand without assitance, magical or otherwise. "How did it feel?" he asked.

[booky_knowitall]

"Like I hurt you," she responded, frowning deeply and collapsing beside him on the floor. "Well, I can do the spell, but it's looking like I'll need more control. I'm sorry..." She chewed on her lip and took the handkerchief from him, since she could see the blood flow better.

She held it a few minutes, then handed it back to him when the bleeding started to dissipate. "I don't think I should take the power from somewhere else. I don't want to hurt anyone who doesn't deserve to be hurt." She leaned into the wall and pulled her knees up to her face.

[naught_common]

"You didn't kill me. You should consider that a success. I seem to remember mentioning that it might take practice. I've certainly had a bloody nose before." She seemed genuinely upset, which surprised him. He had no intention of mentioning the rest. He could sleep here. "How did the spell feel?"

[booky_knowitall]

She looked over at him with a full frown, but she couldn't look at him very long...she'd hurt him by taking some of his energy...she'd crossed the line to dark magic, and had it been an accident?

Or was she frustrated enough to want to hurt him? She hoped it wasn't the latter.

"It felt...like I was more of a pipeline, that the energy came in one place and came out my fingers..." She gulped uncomfortably and rested her chin on her knees.

[naught_common]

She couldn't look at him. Wasn't that interesting? "Not a bad analogy. You need to learn to feel the volume, the speed of that flow. If you get good at it you'd be able to identify subtle differences, life force, from muscle, from magic, from simple things like energy related to fatigue." His toes were numb. He tried wiggling them, hand on his wand as he redirected hsi own magic to deal with things. "You will simply have to do the spell again, though perhaps not immediately."

[booky_knowitall]

"No! I'm not doing it again! I made you bleed without touching you. Who knows what else you're putting on a brave front about. I'm not doing that spell again, never! If I ever need it, it'll be my energy, no one else's, no one's! Not even an enemies, I won't do it!"

She rubbed her eyes. Her hand came away with some moisture, but she hadn't been crying, her eyes were just that moist. "Can I give you some energy back?"

[naught_common]

"Knowing how to make someone bleed without touching them isn't necessarily a bad thing. Particularly if one is at war. Eventually it becomes a kill or be killed thing. I certainly can't make you do anything, but wars are not won with bat bogey hexes and stupify. You have no concept of what your enemies are capable of. You have no idea what they do for sport. Did you see me drop the wards to let Weasley out and restore them? I'm betting you didn't. Did you know I warded the room against ghosts, that I chose a room without portraits? Do you understand that there are people who would kill me, slowly, for admitting that I know the type of spell I just taught you to say nothing whatsoever of offering to teach it to you?" Theo turned the cloth and pressed it back to his nose, smiling grimly when it finally came away clean. "I will be fine, but you musn't be squeamish."

[booky_knowitall]

Hermione swallowed a whimper, and looked back at him, really looked at him. "I noticed there were no portraits..." she mumbled. "Theo...please...can I offer some energy back? Maybe I will try it again, but right now I'm more worried about what I did to you than mastering this spell. Please?"

[naught_common]

Theo held up the handkerchief, showing her the clean spot. "I'm not bleeding anymore. I could, actually, have blocked that spell. I may have to teach you that at some point. You don't know how to return it and I'm not dying. Do all Gryffindors worry this much?"

[booky_knowitall]

"Well, I can return it if I'm trying to heal something I caused, can't I?" she asked curiously. She left her protective position and came up on her knees next to him. "And no, they don't. Actually, I'm known as the worst of the bunch...I drive Harry and Ron mad."

[naught_common]

Theo chuckled. "Perhaps, but then we'd start the cycle again. How about you be happy with the fact that I stopped bleeding and you refrain from asking me to move. I just need a bit of rest," and possibly a potion, "and I'll be fine."

[booky_knowitall]

Hermione smiled slightly. He chuckled. She wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing, but it was better than the cold shoulder she'd had before. "Refrain from asking you to move? Theodore Nott, are you telling me you can't move?" Her weight collapsed and she sat on her feet. "Theo...I didn't just make you bleed, what else did I do?" She could feel herself start to shake, and she gulped again.

[naught_common]

Theo shook his head and levered himself into a straighter position. She was going to be a bother about this. He smiled slightly, "You wore me out, sunshine. Some people would take that as a compliment." He was going to have to manage to drag himself to his feet and that was not really on his schedule of things to do. "Can't you feel it?" he asked. "A proper teacher would make you describe your physical reaction. If you stop looking like you expect me to expire at any moment I'll take steps to rectify the situation." He really would have been happier to just conjure a few pillows and a blanket and sleep it off. Instead it was looking like he was going to have to summon that potion after all.

[booky_knowitall]

Hermione pursed her lips and backed off some, sitting cross-legged a few steps away from him. "Sorry..." Admittedly, her left arm was feeling a great deal stronger than was natural, but that thought just made her cringe all the more, and she decided not to share it.

After a moment, she looked back at him with one quirked eyebrow. "Sunshine?"

[naught_common]

Theo laughed alound at the question. "You are perhaps the only person I know who would get the reference. It's a nod to a lyric from an old Muggle pop song. 'I get my kicks above the waistline, Sunshine'." He smiled, shook his head and decided to forgive her for slapping him. Her obvious consternation of the effect of the spell had gone a long way toward that.

"So tell me what you were feeling when you cast the spell. Consider it a puzzle. I know you like those."

[booky_knowitall]

Hermione laughed, albeit a little uncomfortably. He'd gone from more closed when she ran into him in the library to giving her a petname from an 80s rock song...an American 80s rock song. "Well, yeah, I know the song...the reference through me for a loop, though."

She cleared her throat and thought back to how she'd really felt casting the spell. "It felt like my whole body was cut off from participating, like my body went dark. And then that's when the pipeline effect kicked in, but the energy and life force in the rest of my body beyond it were still completely void." One of her curls came into her face and she twirled it around her finger. "I take it you're in no hurry to show me the door anymore?"